


happily ever after

by sundropflower



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Disney World & Disneyland, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other, au where everyone is a cast member at walt disney world
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-11-28
Packaged: 2020-10-20 07:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20671904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sundropflower/pseuds/sundropflower
Summary: Each of us has a dream, a heart’s desire. It calls to us. And when we’re brave enough to listen, and bold enough to pursue, that dream will lead us on a journey to discover who we’re meant to be.All we have to do is look inside our hearts and unlock the magic within...(Wherein all the characters we know and love are cast members at Walt Disney World, just trying to make a living in the place where dreams come true.)





	1. 1. opening

**Author's Note:**

> hello and welcome to my wdw cast member au! because everyone is on the college program, part time, or full time with wdw in this fic, everyone is at least 18 or older. its still absolutely general audience as i'm outlining it now, but it may change to like, teen maybe. maybe. just be aware going in that these are all modern day adults trying to work a job for a living. all of the disney characters as we know them are just... themselves in the parks. theyre all very excited
> 
> literally everyone will appear in this at one point or another i just wanted to get this started because im actually rly excited to write this one, more than the summer camp thing, and so here goooooes! once upon a time...

_And they all lived happily ever after…_

Sora pushed himself up onto his toes, peering up at the glow of the castle beyond the crowds. It was a sea of phone screens, iPads, and cameras. He felt his chest swell up, tears pricking at his eyes. The music swirled about the hub, with some seasoned guests (passholders? Other cast, maybe?) starting to sing along. Sora absolutely beamed, swaying in time as the first fireworks shot off into the night sky.

Kairi flinched at the pops, but when Sora looked over to make sure that she was okay, he could see the very same joy lighting her eyes as he felt twinkling in his own. He held out a hand for her, and she laced her fingers with his. He held his other hand for Riku, who did not respond. Sora elbowed his taller friend, smile wide on his cheeks, and then held his hand open again.

The castle was alight with projections, now. Dancing colors, dazzling lights. Fireworks lit the sky, the residual smoke blowing away with the winds as the show went on. Sora watched the firework’s colors dance off of his friend’s hair. Kairi’s red popped with the warm tones of the shells, and the white of Riku’s hair caught every color in the skies.

Sora was going to have to watch this show a few more times. He was getting so involved in watching his friends, he’d forgotten to watch the actual display.

Moana’s soaring voice played over the park speakers. Sora thought about how far the three of them had come; they’d grown up together on the islands, and now the three of them had flown all the way across the world to Orlando to go on this new journey together.

_Together._

Sora grabbed onto Riku’s hand as the show continued on to stories of friendships. Riku was much too in awe to realize Sora had been trying to get his attention.

There, crammed between thousands of other people in the plaza of Cinderella’s castle, Sora held on to the clammy hands of his two closest friends. A medley of love songs started to play, and Sora felt the tears in his eyes well up. He squeezed Kairi and Riku’s hands, trembling as he tried to hold back his tears.

If Sora was going to be working merchandise in Adventureland and Liberty Square, he was going to have to get used to this fireworks show. He wouldn’t be able to cry every single night, like he was now.

“Hey, can you believe we’re going to be working here? That we made it this far?” Sora asked, voice quiet under the pops of shells as the sky lit up on cue.

Kairi laughed, wiping away at her tears with her free hand. “Yeah, we sure did. And we did it together. Right, Riku?”

The two leaned over to look at their friend, waiting for his reply. It never came, but Sora and Kairi didn’t mind. He didn’t need to say it aloud for them to know. It was plain on his face, as easy to see as the fireworks in the sky. Riku’s eyes were wide, reflecting the show’s light like pixie dust, and his mouth hung open in awe as he took in the sky. He held his shoulders tight as he held his breath anxiously. “Guys?” Riku finally asked, his voice caught deep within his lungs.

“Yeah?” Sora asked, squeezing Riku’s hand.

“Do you…think we’ll be able to meet Mickey?”

Kairi put her fingers to her lips, hiding her smile. Sora, however, openly beamed. “Of course we can! After all, we work for him now, don’t we?”

Tinkerbell took off across the sky, her dress glowing in the dark, her pixie wings fluttering in the breeze, waving an illuminated magic wand as she zipped along her line. Riku's eyes looked much more green when they were brimming with tears, Sora noticed. He felt his own slide along his cheeks as he watched Tink fly across the plaza, listening to the echo of their narrator telling them to unlock their own magic.

To make their dreams come true.

"We sure do," Riku agreed, finally smiling. His chest heaved as he laughed, watching the castle wash over into glimmering gold and red tones as it was taken over by the display's magical finale, a barrage of fireworks shooting off overhead. 

Kairi pulled her hair back behind her ear, blinking away her own tears as the lamps surrounding Cinderella Castle flickered back to life and guests started to repack their bags and strollers. "We have two more hours before the park closes, and then we have to be up bright and early tomorrow. You boys have Once Upon A Time Starts Now, and I've got a costume fitting over at Chip and Dale's. Are we hitting up a few more rides, or catching the bus back to housing?" 

Sora couldn't help but shake with his excitement. 

This program was going to be incredible. He was going to learn so much, and meet so many amazing people. 

He couldn't wait to get started. 


	2. heeeeeeello there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ventus begins his training at a brand new attraction.

“Vantas?”

“Uh, Ventus, actually. You know, you could, um… You could just call me Ven,” he corrected, hand raised slightly to grab the older man’s attention.

He looked to the binder in his hands, and the paper on its cover, before his face flushed red. “Oh. So it is. Sorry about that.”

“It happens a lot,” Ven admitted, grabbing his backpack from the floor of the break room and slinging it over his shoulder.

His trainer shook his head, his brown hair falling into his face. “No. No, it’s not okay to say your name wrong. I should have read it more clearly. I’m sorry. I’m, uh-? I’m a little nervous, I guess. You’re the first cast member I’m training.”

Ven straightened, unsure of how he was supposed to look. Was he allowed to smile? Was it awkward if he apologized back? After a few moments of shifting between his feet, Ven held a hand out to his trainer, and said, “Well, I’ll do my best not to burn down the building then, yeah? It’s nice to meet you. Terra, right?”

“Yeah,” Terra agreed, smiling down to Ven with a slightly less red face, but a stiff and anxious grin. “Technically, I’ll be training you, but I’m still doing my trainer shadows under Aqua, so you’ll be seeing her a lot, too. She’s the one who’s actually going to sign you off and do your paperwork and all of that. So you’re…full time, right?”

“That’s right,” he nodded, following Terra out of the break room and along the uneven concrete paths toward Dinoland U.S.A.’s backstage gate. “Got statused at the end of my program. Still waiting for a name tag that doesn’t have my college on it, though.”

Terra gave a solid nod, leading Ven around the gate and onstage. They veered up the path to Ven’s favorite building, his pride and joy, and the reason he still felt his heart swell when he woke up at four in the morning to arrive at Cast Services for his opening training shifts: the Dino Institute. “Where were you before here?”

Ven’s feet picked up, letting his strides carry him to Terra’s side instead of his shadow. As they walked up to the ride building, Ven gave small waves to the dinosaur statues that lined the hill. “Fant West.” Then, when Terra didn’t respond, he specified, “Peter Pan’s Flight. Small World. Phillar. You know, the, uh..." He scowled, his shoulders lifting to his ears and his face going red. With a grumble of shame, Ven summed up, "The kid's rides. ”

“Oh, yikes. I’ve got a friend who used to work over that way, said couples got…intimate in the theater.”

Ven paled. “Yeah, uh… I think I had to call custodial, like, twice a day when I closed. It was a nightmare.” He shook it off, giving a small salute to the statue of Aladar the Iguanadon that stood proud at the entrance of the attraction. “But, to be fair, I also see so many Code U’s over in the Boneyard, so... It’s the nature of the game, right? At least I haven’t had a live, loaded gun found in a ride vehicle yet, right?”

Terra laughed. In fact, he stopped walking to laugh, wiping a tear from one of his eyes and clapping the hand to Ven’s shoulder. Ven almost tripped under the force. Terra was…pretty stacked, for someone working in a theme park. He was starting to wonder how demanding Dinosaur was actually going to be; Eraqus had warned him during their last meeting that Ven might not have been able to handle the building, but Ven had insisted that he had earned the spot to cross-train. Xehanort had told him he could have been a coordinator back in Fantasyland, if he wasn’t on his college program.

Didn’t stop Xehanort from making that girl on her program a relief coordinator the week that Ven left, though. He tried not to think about that. He was happy in Animal Kingdom. It was a closer drive from his apartment, and he loved the ride. He loved this ride. He’d begged Eraqus to let him train here, and after two and a half months of Boneyard shifts five days a week, he was finally clocking in at five-fourty-five to walk the track and wake up all the dinos.

“You’ve got me there. It was a little before my time, though, that one,” Terra admitted, walking Ven into the gift shop at the ride’s exit, and showing him through the cast door backstage. “Aqua I think was working here, though. I was still only at Theater in the Wild. You could ask her about it, when we see her.”

Ven winced. While it may have felt like a slap in the face to get full time at the Boneyard, he had made it through by remembering that it could have been worse. He could have been full time at Nemo the Musical. Terra, however, didn’t really seem to mind it. In fact, he still looked kind of nervous about working Dinosaur, from the way he kept reviewing Ven’s training binder, and how his fingers twitched before he flicked any light switch.

“Terra!” a young woman greeted, entering Dino’s break room from a second door. She wasn’t in the same cross-strapped gray and yellow costume as Terra and Ven wore; she had the white buttoned shirt and crisp brown pants of a coordinator, with a blocky radio and a securely cased phone clipped to her belt. Her hair was freshly washed, still wet, and it was pulled back into a tight, slicked ponytail. “You’re early. Ready to show Ventus our blast to the past?”

“Yeah, getting there,” he laughed, sitting down at one of the tables. “Dyed your hair back, I see.”

She shrugged, reaching up to touch at the ends of her hair. It was a dark brown, deeper than Terra’s, and she looked a little sad. “Well, you know. The Mouse isn’t the biggest fan of blues, and my vacation was over, so… It was time to change it back. Besides, I’ve been having a few more meetings with Eraqus about moving up to area leader, so I need to start paying more respect to the Disney Look guidelines.”

“Area lead? No kidding?”

“We’ll see. For now, we have to work on our coordinators not calling in, so I can actually do training. Sorry about this, by the way, Ventus,” she said, looking up from her computer for the first time since she’d sat down. She looked sad, and tired, but kind. “I was really looking forward to getting to work with you and showing you around, Eraqus told me you love this ride a lot. Our opener called out, so I’m having to fill in until the mid arrives at nine, so Terra’s going to show you opening procedures just the two of you, and then I’ll catch up when I can.”

Ven was sorry, too. “It’s alright. Things happen. I’m just excited to be here,” he told her, glancing around at the photos and signatures that hung up on the break room’s walls. Cast who’d come and gone, names he would never know. There were a few Ven managed to find, though: Eraqus’s curling signature from twelve years ago, Aqua’s from six. Terra’s name was written up, and dated for five months ago.

“Dino’s a love of yours, that right?” Aqua asked, looking over the labor graph for the day.

He nodded, then answered aloud, “For sure. It’s my favorite ride in all four parks. I can’t wait to learn what all of the dinosaur’s actual names are. Like… Someone said you guys call the Aladar animatronic ‘Iggy’?”

Aqua huffed out a small laugh. “Yeah. No one here has seen, or cares about, that movie. This building is a beast all her own.”

“You’re going to find out plenty,” Terra assured him, clapping his hand to Ven’s shoulder again. He leaned back in his chair to throw a look to Aqua over his back, and asked, voice a little louder, “Aqua, we have the building yet?”

“Not yet. Maintenance is still looking over that squeak on the track switch. Cid says it should be another fifteen or so before we can take the building, and then they have to go do show resets. You told Ventus about show resets, yet?”

“Getting there,” Terra answered. “Here, let’s, um. Let’s grab the Operating Guide, and then go take a walk around the station. Aqua, can you call us at, let’s say…Dispatch? Call us at Dispatch when we have the building?”

She nodded, eyes still focused on the computer screen. “10-4.”

Terra slapped his hands down to the table, pushing himself to his feet. He crossed to the metal shelves beside the computer desk and pulled out a thick green binder, holding it out for Ven. “Great. Alright, Ven, shall we?”

If he hadn’t been awake before, he certainly would have been now. He took the guidelines from Terra and nearly dropped them. They were much heavier than Terra made them seem. Ven reminded himself that Terra could probably crush a watermelon in the crook of his elbow, and Ventus had once broken his wrist from rolling over in his sleep. “Yeah, you’ve got it.”

“Follow me.”

“Well,” Ven started, hoisting the guidelines up to his chest and kicking his backpack toward the lockers on the far wall. He lifted his chin, making a show of his bright grin to Aqua as he quoted, “I’d better go find him before security does.”

Aqua looked up, her eyes tired. Still, she wore a maternal sort of smile on her face. She sighed. “You’re going to be one of _those_, huh?”

Ven leaned back to press against the bar and open the door. He called back through his smile, “Thanks for everything!”


	3. wonder awaits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxas gets reintroduced to his home park, making a new friend, and meeting back up with some old ones.

The day had started out great, but now, Roxas wasn’t so sure. As the day progressed, the knot in the pit of his stomach tightened. This was all redundant, and sort of stupid, and it was embarrassing to have to be toured around the park as if he hadn’t lived here for a year during his program. Some of the kids in his advantage had managed to status right out of the college program. Roxas wondered if that meant they didn’t have to go through all of the hand-holding of orientations again.

He, of course, was a creature of misfortune. He’d had the great misfortune of being in quick service food and beverage for half of his college program, and then table service for the other. Then, he’d had the misfortune of his program lapsing without getting his extension. Luckily, he’d made good friends through his time in food services; it was the only thing that made the role worth it for Roxas.

Now, he’d gotten hired back part-time, and in attractions, and Roxas hadn’t been so excited in months. And then, heart-breakingly, Roxas was told he would be, once again, in Epcot. And then, heart-breakingly, he was told his “attraction” was park greeter. Turnstiles, touch-points, whatever they wanted to call them. He was going to be wearing that stupid purple shirt with hundreds of Spaceship Earths printed across it, the dumb gray-khaki shorts… His whole day would be spent telling people their ticket wasn’t a park hopper, or that they couldn’t bring their over-sized Keenz wagon into the park anymore.

At least he’d been able to have fun watching the other cast members in his Discovery Day tour group smile as they got to know Epcot. He’d almost forgotten that the breezeway into Future World East was blue because it was a celebration of the man-made, and Future World West’s was green because it’s pavilions were testaments to the progression of the natural world. It made him smile to stand in a big circle around the medallion just beyond the Fountain of Nations and hear the recording play out, “Ladies and gentlemen of Epcot, please give a warm wave and welcome to our newest cast members!”

He’d felt a sort of glow at that one, he had to admit.

To be fair, some of that might have been from watching the teary smile of Xion, standing in awe right next to him.

Watching her be introduced to Epcot was almost worth it. He might have spent more of Discovery Day watching her play with the ends of her black hair than listening to the tour; noticing the way her almost violet eyes sparkled with wonder than noticing the shift in the park’s ambient music…

“Roxas!”

He snapped awake as the group trotted along past the Fountain of Nations again. Standing outside of Electric Umbrella and waving a washrag was Lea, bright smile on his too-lean face. Roxas waved back, and Lea’s grin turned all teeth as he laughed. “Hey, Lea,” Roxas called back, trying to stay discreet to avoid the stare of his facilitators.

Xion nudged at Roxas’s arm, nodding in Lea’s direction. “Friend of yours?” she asked, voice soft.

“Yeah, we used to work shifts at the Umbrella together,” Roxas replied. Then, swatting the air to gesture for Lea to back off, Roxas elaborated, “And, he let me crash with him until I got rehired.”

“That’s nice of him,” Xion noted, watching Lea with earnest. He made a few rude faces meant for Roxas, and then went bright red when he realized Xion was watching him, too. “Hair’s a little long, don’t you think?”

Roxas laughed. “Yeah, probably. He’s a good dude, just… A little much, sometimes.”

“The best ones are,” Xion agreed. “Come on. Someone said we’re picking up our costumes when we get back to cast services.”

She was right, and he remembered as much from his first orientation. “Oh yeah?” he feigned anyway, following her lead. “Can’t wait to wear that stupid purple tarp every day.”

“Oh, like khaki on khaki is much better,” she laughed, pushing at him as they followed their group through the backstage gate by Test Track, laughing louder to combat the sounds of the cars running by every thirteen seconds. “You’ll be hanging out in the shade, waving at all the little princesses, and I get to carry around forty pounds of camera equipment.”

“Exactly, so you get to be buff as hell-I… I mean, as heck. Just. Really buff.”

“Nice save, but we’re backstage, dork,” Xion teased. Roxas nearly tripped over the dolley tracks in the concrete connecting Test Track to its maintenance barn.

He kicked at the next set on purpose, hands deep in his pockets. Under his breath, Roxas repeated, “Just, like, super buff.”

They made jokes about the library of Alexandria and the fashion of the 60s as their group meandered through Cast Services. They met with their area coordinators, or their trainers, and their entire Discovery Day group split into pieces. Attractions cast went off through costuming to be fitted to their specific buildings, cast members for the World Showcase toddled off to find their caricature costumes. Roxas waited for one of the Attractions trainers to tell him exactly what size of purple trash he was supposed to wear while Xion, all smiles from her day in the park, got to meet her trainer.   
Her beautiful, blonde, young, smiling trainer.

“Xion?” she asked, blue training binder in hand. When Xion raised her hand, the blonde smiled, a soft curve on her light pink lips. “Oh, great! It’s a joy to meet you, Xion. My name is Naminé. I’m going to be your trainer this week.”

Xion straightened up, standing taller. She took Naminé’s hand into her own and shook it a little too vigorously, laughing off her nerves. “That’s so great! It’s so nice to meet you, Naminé. I’m Xion. You knew that, you called my name. You knew that.”

“I did, yes,” Naminé said, but her laugh was soft, and sweet, and genuine, and it made Xion start to play at the hair behind her ear again. “You’re going to love Photopass, I promise. It’s the best job on property.”

“Now, that isn’t true,” Roxas teased, “Obviously the best job is greeters who get to wear these amazing Spaceship Earth shirts.”

“Are you…making fun of park greeters?” he heard from over his shoulder.

Roxas winced. He turned, finding the blue and purple shirt and light khaki pants of a coordinator. Roxas tried a few times to force words out of his mouth. Really, he just sort of resembled a fish. He felt like he was drowning just as much. “No, no, I-?”

The coordinator sighed. His shoulders dropped, and he pulled his hat from his head, scratching at the places where he was beginning to lose his hair. “Your roots are showing. I hope you plan to dye that, or bleach it, or something.”

Roxas reached up to his hair, twirling the blonde ends in his shaking fingertips. “Oh. Um, yeah, I can-?”

“Replace those shoes before your next shift. Polish-able black lace-up shoes, without holes, please.” Roxas lifted his toes from the floor, looking down to the scuffs on his shoes where the floor cleaner had soaked through his soles from his program. The treads had worn flat months ago, and the rubber was peeling away in layers. He bit his lip, unsure of how to reply to that particular comment. With another heavy sigh, his coordinator waved him along, and beckoned, “Come with me, your costume is this way.”

“Bye, Xion,” Roxas whispered. She was caught up talking to her trainer, all smiles and laughs, to hear him and reply.

He could feel that his face was hot. Naminé seemed so attentive, and sweet, and knowledgeable. Roxas felt so scattered. He felt stupid.

Roxas had never felt so unlucky.


	4. reprimand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanitas gets a talking-to about his goals for the future.

He crumpled the paper slip into his fist. Slowly, with his boots making heavy stomps, Vanitas crossed through the crowded alleys of Fantasyland. He tried to straighten the slip back out; it was a bad look to arrive in the leaders’ office and slap down a crumpled ball that said  _ “Vanitas Gilbert, please meet in the Leaders Office until 17:55. Start of Assignment: 17:25.” _

A half an hour to talk to the managers? About what? 

He saw red. He crunched the paper up again.

“Um, excuse me-?” a woman asked, reaching out to grab Vanitas by the arm. “Can you tell me how to get to Splash Mountain from here?”

“Do I  _ look  _ like I’m from Frontierland?” he snapped back.

“Excuse me?”

His brow furrowed, and he began to tap his foot against the uneven concrete path. Faux wagon tracks were pressed into the ground, along with hoof prints. Soon, there would be a print matching the treads of Van’s steel-toed boots. “Follow the path until everyone looks like a cowboy, then ask one of them. You’ll get lost again if I just explain it from here. Or, you know, you could download the map, and then you’d never have to ask again.”

The woman’s face went bright red. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was small. “This is no way to treat an annual pass holder. This behavior is not what Walt would have wanted,” she hissed, pulling out her phone. 

Vanitas rolled his eyes. He checked the watch on his wrist. 5:27. He was burning through the minutes of his meeting, and if he was late back to rotation, his coordinators would have a fit trying to write him up again for it. “Ma’am, if you’re an annual pass holder, you should already know how to get to Splash Mountain. Have fun.”

She scoffed. Then, she sneered. Then, she floundered for sounds, unsure of how best to complain. Eventually, as Vanitas tried to turn away to continue to the leaders’ office, she grabbed his arm, and exclaimed, “I am reporting you to guest relations, young man. This is absurd.”

He yanked his arm out of her grasp. “Don’t touch me,” he warned. “You can’t touch me.”

“What’s your name? I’m taking this up with your manager. This is ridiculous. I’m just asking for directions,” she balked. Phone poised for a photo, she read his nametag, “Chris?”

Van held the tag straighter. “From Orlando, Florida. There’s a lot of Chrises, so you’ll need that part, too. Don’t you have a fastpass to catch?” 

“Get me your manager right now!” she yelled. Other guests flinched away, clearing the path as they awkwardly tried to avoid the confrontation unfolding beside the grand carousel. 

He took advantage of the clearing. “I can’t do that,” he answered. When her red face started to turn purple, he pointed to a short girl beside the touch points of Mickey’s Philharmagic, who paled when she noticed Van’s raised arm. She shook her head, spine straightening. “But she has a phone, and can call for one. They’re not out here just milling around, you know. But I’ve been summoned somewhere else, so she’s going to help you from here.” Then, his voice raised to carry, he called, “Right, Kiersten?”

“It’s Kathleen,” the girl sighed, stepping in front of her podium to meet the angered woman halfway. “I’m so sorry, ma’am, let me call someone for you…”

Vanitas took off, no longer shuffling his feet. He bolted into the theatre, ducking behind a cast only door, and taking the staircase two at a time. When the paint was more yellow than cream, and peeling away on the corners, he stopped to catch his breath. Vanitas squared his shoulders, lifted his chin, and put on his angriest face. 

“Nothing to worry about. It’s probably Ashleigh. Ashleigh’ll just have you write the statement, sign the form, and get back to work. Nothing to worry about.”

He opened the door.

The office chair turned, and the idle sounds of keyboards clattering stopped. “Ah, Vanitas! Late, as per usual. Another thing to notate?”

It wasn’t Ashleigh. 

“I, um. I got caught with a guest asking for directions, sir,” Van tried. He was pointed toward an empty fraying office chair, the blue upholstery long torn to reveal the spongey yellow foam beneath. Vanitas took a seat. “I tried to get here on time, I promise.”

“Quite alright, my boy,” Xehanort muttered. “Did you want a steward present?”

_ Yes _ , Van thought. He needed some form of witness. “What’ll the union possibly do for me? Tell me they’re sorry as I have to sign my newest reprimand?”

Xehanort cracked a smile. “That’s a no?”

“No, I’ll be fine,” Van lied. “That’s why I'm here, though. Right? Another reprimand?”

Xehanort nodded. “Seems your temper has returned.” 

“It’s the end of summer. It’s slammed.”

Xehanort nodded. He stood up, chair creaking, and Vanitas flinched. His steps were slow and calculated as he made his way to the printer, collected Van’s paperwork, and then returned to the conference table. “I have high expectations for you,” he announced, punctuating the statement with the slam of his stack of papers. “What happened to you wanting to be a trainer?”

“You said you’d make Ven and I both trainers if we stayed on,” Van said. “And then he got statused in Dinoland instead. I didn’t think him leaving meant I wouldn’t get-?”

“Who said anything about Ventus?” Xehanort laughed. “We’re talking about  _ you _ .”

Van shifted in his chair. “I…? Um…”

“I told you that if you stayed here in Fantasyland, I would promote you to trainer, didn’t I?” 

“Yeah, you said we both-?”

“But do you think your behavior is indicative of someone mature enough to handle being a trainer, Vanitas?”

He paused. “I-? Well, no, but I think-?”

“Do you think Melody knows as much about these rides as you do?” he pressed on.

Vanitas curled his hands into fists on the arms of his chair. “No!” he shot, face getting red. “She’s a freakin’  _ CP,  _ Xehanort, she’s only going to be here another three months, tops! I’m full-time! I did my program, I know these buildings. I’m  _ smarter  _ than her. I’d be better at it.”

Xehanort threw his pen across the table. It smacked against Vanitas’s face, then fell against his chest. “Then prove that. Clean up your act, and I’ll give you trainer.”

“Why do you do that?” Van asked, clicking the pen and starting to scratch his name onto the pages. 

“Do what, my boy?”

“Make me empty promises, and, like… Throw things at me. Ever since I statused, you’ve been, like… Extra mean to me?” Vanitas replied, his voice quieter and quieter as he went on. 

There was a hollow sort of stare in Xehanort’s eyes, searching for the burden of proof in Vanitas’s shaking shoulders. “Have I, now?”

“Ventus left.”

“He did. I had great expectations for you both,” Xehanort answered. His voice seemed to echo against the walls. The only other sounds were the tick of the wall clock and the too-slow scratch of Vanitas’s pen. “I promised you two many things that I still intend to follow through on. And you, my boy, stayed. You persevered. Ventus, alas, did not.”

Stupid fucking Dinoland. Stupid, stupid Ventus.

“See?” Van said, trying to use the sharp bark of his laugh to cover the sniffle of his nose. “I’m better than he is.”

“Are you through with those witness statements?” Xehanort asked.

Van straightened the papers. “Yeah. Uh, yeah, I guess. Do you mean that? About me becoming a trainer?”

Xehanort took the papers roughly from Vanitas. He walked to his desk, dropping the stack into a bright red folder, and then he started to scroll through his emails. “Clean up your record card, and we’ll talk.”

“Yessir. Am I…?”

“Get back to your rotations, Vanitas. It appears one of your late closers has just called out. There’s possibilities for you to extend your shift, if you’d like?”

Van knew that tone. That wasn’t a suggestion, or advice; it was an order. Extend the shift, or give up any hope of becoming a trainer. “Who called?”

Xehanort looked over his shoulder with a cold smile.

“Melody?” Vanitas set his teeth on edge. Fingers curled up, he sneered, “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll take that OT. I’ll take the shift and I’ll take her trainer’s pin right off her stupid brocade vest.”

He slammed the door behind him as he left.

He could have sworn underneath it, he heard Xehanort laughing.


End file.
